The purpose of this meta-analysis was to assess the overall effects of automaticity training of fundamental literacy component skills (i.e., letter names/sounds, individual words) on reading fluency and comprehension. Another purpose was to assess if the effects of automaticity training varied for reading fluency and comprehension. We identified…

This multiple baseline across participants study examined the efficacy of a data-based individualization word study intervention for students with autism spectrum disorder (N=5) and low word reading skills. An experienced interventionist provided 1:1 word reading instruction in 30-minute sessions five times per week for an average of 10 sessions…

Four fundamental language skills interact with each other. Developing reading skills will also develop listening, speaking, and writing skills. Reading comprehension, using what is understood on new subjects and learning new words during reading can influence listening comprehension as well as oral and written self-expression. General complaints…

In this study, researchers operated from cognitive and situated perspectives to understand how individual qualities and contextual factors influenced elementary special education teachers' learning in a multifaceted professional development (PD) project, Literacy Learning Cohort, focused on word study and fluency instruction. Grounded theory…

Children with spelling difficulties are limited in their participation in all written school activities. We aimed to investigate the influence of word-prediction as a tool on spelling accuracy and typing speed. To this end, we selected 80 Grade 4-6 children with spelling difficulties in a school for special needs to participate in a research…

A study investigated the source of teacher frustration concerning their students' spelling abilities and whether or not word study increases retention as opposed to a traditional approach to spelling instruction. Subjects, 16 fifth-grade students at a public school in a suburban area of central Virginia, were formed into groups based on…

The purpose of this study was to determine if differences existed between second- and fifth-grade students' word recognition errors, and if differences existed between the word attack strategies utilized by them. Using the Informal Reading Inventory, a random sample of twenty-five second graders and twenty-five fifth graders was taken from three…

Investigates whether a computer-based word study method, emphasizing automaticity of response, would improve students' word recognition, spelling, and oral reading performance. Finds support for a verbal efficiency theory of reading, in which the key to developing reading efficiency is developing word recognition that is automatic. (RS)

This study examined the effects of a multifaceted, metacognitive vocabulary intervention on the reading comprehension and vocabulary achievement of fifth-grade children in one of California's lowest performing Title I schools. Instruction was comprehensive, designed to facilitate encoding of student-selected words, mastery of clarifying…

An action research project describes a cross-age tutoring program to help increase the reading achievement of targeted second graders. The targeted population consisted of second and fifth graders in a middle class suburban community west of a large midwestern city. The problems of poor word attack skills and reading comprehension were documented…

A study investigated the effect of properties of words and texts on the incidental learning of word meanings during normal reading. Subjects--352 students in third, fifth, and seventh grades--read either expository or narrative passages selected from grade-level textbooks, and after six days were tested on their knowledge of difficult words from…

A study was conducted to examine (1) the type of instruction most likely to help both normal and learning disabled readers use the analogy strategy in reading novel words, and (2) how fifth grade disabled readers compared with normal second and fifth grade readers. Analogy strategies, the most abstract of the reading strategies, are generally…

To determine if children could discriminate among the 24 ways in which words possess meaning (logico-semantic relationships) defined by Evanechko and to see if this ability changed over time, 570 fifth, eighth, and eleventh graders were presented the task of sorting decks of cards containing examples of the 24 categories. Although it was not…